Whether Powell would get offed or not, by one group or another, is almost beside the point.
You did not have Powell to vote for in 2000, and you do not have Powell to vote for in 2004, because of the acceptance by both him and his wife was that Powell would likely be killed.
Now Powell doesn't strike me too much as a paranoid type of guy.
You could make a strong case for his pragmatism, even.
So what does it really say about things when someone like him won't even join the race?